{1} Sabi ng isang pilosopong ayaw sa matanong, di niya gusto ang mga tanong dahil nagmumukha kang walang isasagot. Tinatanong nila ako, “Taga-Marinduque ka baga?” O minsan, ang kabaliktaran: “Akala ko taga-Marinduque ka?” Tama siguro ang pilosopo. Di ko rin kasi alam, e. ‘Yung nanay ko, tubo talaga roon. Lumaking kabisado ng talampakan ang pilapil. May pilat sa tuhod. Noong bata pa, tumikangkang...
This paper explores food that ferments naturally, without the addition of yeast. Before my first taste of tengba, I was warned by the same person who invited me that I might not like it. I was then a high school student vacationing in Besao, my mother’s hometown in the Cordillera. This dish is traditionally the only dish served during linayaan, a family gathering that marks the falling off of the...
“While the 20th century was seized by a recombinatorial delirium, which made it feel as if newness was infinitely available, the 21st century is oppressed by a crushing sense of finitude and exhaustion. It doesn’t feel like the future. Or, alternatively, it doesn’t feel as if the 21st century has started yet. We remain trapped in the 20th century, just as Sapphire and Steel were incarcerated in...
Mainit ang buntong-hininga ng kagubatan sa San Bartolome. Tinutuyo ng tag-init ang mga sakahan ngayong panahon ng tag-ulan. Kaya hilahod ang tuhod ni Kardo, bumubula ang bibig habang ngumunguya ng hangin,habang pinapalis ng buntotang mga insektong sa kanyang laman nanginginainsa ga-santol na sugat na ayaw gumaling. Namumutok ang mga braso at binti ni Renante habang sinusuyod-ginagaod ang ararong...
IThe Dream Nights ago, I dreamt I was back in my senior year of high school, that academic year made most memorable by the fact that it was the only one we spent at our new campus, then just three buildings for three departments—preschool, elementary, and high school—with the elementary and high school buildings designed in a similar manner: five floors stacked on top of one another with two...
The earliest writer I have ever known was my Uncle Andy. My mother, Nanay, was also a writer but I have no memory of seeing her writing even now in my later years. It was always my uncle. The earliest stories I wrote include Uncle Andy who had the habit of writing daily, surrendering himself to the business of an old, smallish typewriter throughout odd hours of the day. If he didn’t work with the...
Bawat taon, nag-iipon si Mama ng mga puwede nang itapong mga plastik, resibo, papel, sapatos, bag, appliances, tools, at iba pang bagay. Nagkalat sa sahig ang mga alahas, lumang cellphone, at mga gamit niya sa trabaho: torniquette, needles, syringes, betadine, alcohol swabs, gas masks, cotton buds, stool containers, at surgical tapes. Bakit siya naging hoarder ng mga gamit? Nakapagtataka. Mula...